Quantum Leap

Brendan Deneen · **Joined:** 17 Aug 2004 **Posts:** 772 **Location:** NYC

From Dark Horizons...

Quote:

IESB reports that The Sci-Fi Channel is currently developing a new "Quantum Leap" TV series which will introduce fans to a new female lead "Leaper" and will not involve original early 90's series star Scott Bakula. Word is that Sci-Fi will try to re-imagine the entire series just like they did with "Battlestar Galactica" but indications are that the project is quickly running out of energy.

If the project does not pick up speed in the very near future, both Don Bellisario and Scott Bakula apparently intend to bring "Quantum Leap" to the big screen and will try to address all the questions that were left unanswered during the last season. Thus if the TV project does not get off the ground within the next few months, "Quantum Leap: The Movie" could be a reality around 2006.

The original show starred Bakula as scientist Sam Beckett, who in experimenting with time travel, loses himself in a perpetual warp that catapults him into the bodies and lives of random people throughout time. While he temporarily inhabits a person's body, Sam also must solve a problem or mystery in that person's life (the solving of which triggers another jump). Continually trying to find a way to his home time, Sam has the help of Rear Admiral Albert "Al" Calavicci (Dean Stockwell), who appears, only to Sam, in hologram form, and the supercomputer Ziggy, which provides clues for solving each episode's mystery.

Ian Sokoliwski · 09 Sep 2004

Does anybody remember the rumoured episode that would have had Sam 'leap' into 'Magnum P.I.'? I always thought that would be a fun episode (there is probably a fanfic based on that concept somewhere on the web already).

Charles K · 03 Aug 2004

I loved Quantum Leap but that last episode sucked real bad.

Linda · **Posted:** Mon Sep 20, 2004 12:27 pm

New movie with Bakula = must see!

New series without Bakula = pointless!

Kevin · 08 Aug 2004

So much of the charm of the original series lay in the byplay between Bakula and Dean Stockwell, plus Bakula's skill at playing so many different characters. His performance in the episode in which he was put through shock therapy and started going through numerous personalities was so good that he should have won an Emmy. I don't see a new series without those two actors lasting very long.

Brendan Deneen · **Joined:** 17 Aug 2004 **Posts:** 772 **Location:** NYC

I loved this show so much as a teenager but (thankfully, from what i hear) missed the last season, where there was an "evil" leaper and a lot of God stuff. However, I did love the "continuity" stories involving a young Al, etc. Great show.

Charles K · 03 Aug 2004

# The final episode, "Mirror Image", was not meant to be the final episode for the series. NBC couldn't handle another season of sub par ratings for the show and cancelled it. To bring some kind of closure to the show, a message came on at the end saying Sam never returned home. Many fans felt cheated.

# There were several ideas for episodes which ultimately were never used. One had Sam leaping in as Robert F. Kennedy; another idea would involve an animated episode; the producers even toyed with the idea of leaping Sam in as a baby. Also, Don Bellisario wanted to do an episode where Sam leaps in as Thomas Magnum (from "Magnum, P.I."); it is unclear why that episode never materialized, although in an earlier episode a character is seen watching "Magnum, P.I." thus establishing that show as fiction within the QL "universe".

Ian Sokoliwski · 09 Sep 2004

So, I guess nothing has ever happened with the new TV series, huh?

Rob Steinbrenner · **Joined:** 05 Jun 2006 **Posts:** 49778

It's the hottest show on tv, can't believe you've missed it.

Pope Krysak · 11 Dec 2006

Ian Sokoliwski wrote:

So, I guess nothing has ever happened with the new TV series, huh?

That's the fun of 'development' hell'. If all the really great ideas that I've heard announced over the years actually came out tv would be a helluva lot more fun.

Bobson Dugnutt · 31 Jan 2005

Enterprise canceled Quantum Leap.

Chris · **Joined:** 11 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 21258

Linda wrote:

New movie with Bakula = must see!

New series without Bakula = pointless!

Amen! All hail the Bakula.

I must say, I loved Quantum Leap. Loved it.

And I have always been baffled as to how it is that Bakula is not a huge star. The guy is awesome. When I heard he was going to be the new captain In Enterprise, I was thrilled. Of course the show just had to tank.

One of my favorite Quantum Leap episodes is the Don Quixote episode.

Darrell Hempel · 09 Oct 2006

Quantum Leap is my favorite.

Uncle Twitchy · **Joined:** 28 Nov 2006 **Posts:** 30520

I have the shooting script for the final episode (because a buddy of mine's dad was in it), and the original ending -- before they knew it was the last episode, and was just supposed to be the season cliffhanger -- was very different.

Chris · **Joined:** 11 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 21258

Uncle Twitchy wrote:

I have the shooting script for the final episode (because a buddy of mine's dad was in it), and the original ending -- before they knew it was the last episode, and was just supposed to be the season cliffhanger -- was very different.

Share please.

Frank L. Sisko · 25 Dec 2006

Well?

Uncle Twitchy · **Joined:** 28 Nov 2006 **Posts:** 30520

Oh, jeez. Okay. It's been a while since I read it. I was going to wait until I got home, so some of this might be wrong.

Well, if I recall correctly, in the last act he was lost to Ziggy, so Al had to go into the chamber to find him, and spent most of the end of the act looking for him. It was quite confusing, with an alternate timeline and stuff. And the original idea following the end was that Sam was no longer limited to leaping within the confines of his own lifespan. At the end, and I can't remember if it was Sam or Al who leaped, but whomever did ended up on a space station in the "near future" right before it was being attacked by somebody.

Chris · **Joined:** 11 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 21258

I remember reading that the reason for the whole leaping within his own lifetime rule was simply a budget concern. It was too expensive to have Sam leap back too far into the past, or too far into the future.

Then I would watch Highlander: the series, and see Duncan cavorting around in all kinds of period costumes and settings, and thought that if they could do it on a small budget, so too could Quantum Leap.

But Highlader was filmed in Canada, and I guess the American dollar just stretched a bit further. But I always wanted to see Sam leap at least once out of his lifetime.

Chris · **Joined:** 11 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 21258

Have the Quantum Leap DVD sets been successful enough to warrant a new series, or to get a feature film greenlit?

RobertSwanderson · 01 Jan 2007

They should've ended Enterprise with Sam leaping out of Archer and into an episode of Battlestar Galactica.

Uncle Twitchy · **Joined:** 28 Nov 2006 **Posts:** 30520

I thought it was an interesting ending, given the fact that the show appeared to be on its last legs. I suppose the ending in the script my friend's dad had could have had a fake ending.

RobertSwanderson · 01 Jan 2007

Oh boy.

Quantum Leap

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